Gobble, Gobble

Thanksgiving Day was spent with the Madsen Family this year. We had a wonderful time eating, visiting, playing games, and hanging around! We are so blessed to be close to family and be able to share wonderful holidays with them!! Here's a few highlights from the entire day!!Zachary and Emma enjoying their Thanksgiving Dinner.

Emma got to sit on a FLYING SAUCER to eat and loved it for a little while!

Here's the snooze fest that happens after the YUMMY meal.

All the grown men are REALLY asleep, but not the kids!!


The Grandkids got to enjoy some movies for their relaxation time.

When we got home that night I wanted a picutre of ME on Thanksgiving, so I made Alan take one with me. It's so nice to be able to come home and enjoy the last bit of the holiday with such an amazing Baba!!

We have been truely blessed this year although it has been a tough year! It's amazing how we are blest despite other obstacles we may face in life. We are looking forward to the wonderful blessing of bringing another child into our home VERY soon! We also look forward to the wonderful Christmas Season!!!

!!Girls Weekend!!

This is our second anual girls weekend trip down to St. George.

We had such a BLAST!

We spent one whole day in Vegas shopping, getting makeovers, and eating yummy food!

Here's the result of our shopping in Vegas!!
We spent the rest of the time in St. George shopping, eating, goofing around, going to the temple and enjoying life without kids!!!

It's ALWAYS so much fun to be with these girls!!! I was 37 weeks pregnant, but I knew I wouldn't miss this weekend for the WORLD!! It was well worth all the fun bonding and funny moments we had together, including getting locked out of the house and eating at the Cheesecake Factory in Vegas at 10:00pm!!

Oh the MEMORIES!!!!

So the Other Day - - -

I went to leave for the store and Emma came running in wondering if she could come. I reluctantly agreed to let her go and sent her off to find her shoes.In a matter of no time she came running back with shoes on and her hands full of ALL THIS claiming, "Okay, Let's GO!"

I just busted up laughing!

She could barely hold onto EVERYTHING that was in her hands!

I told her she could have her purse and EVERYTHING else must stay home, she was a bit saddened, but finally agreed to the conditions.

She LOVES to just collect stuff from EVERYWHERE and cart it around.

Gotta Love It!!!

(Look Closely I think you will be surprised what "Precious" things she really carts around!!)

Halloween Extravaganza!

I was so excited for Halloween this year, as ALWAYS! I love dressing kids up! It brought me great joy when my family thought of Hansel and Gretel for my kids to be. It was fun to put together and make their costumes and I think they turned out DARLING! Emma was excited to be Gretel the minute I told her that Gretel was a Princess and of course she added her own touch with a little "BLING"!Hansel and Gretel at the "Trunk or Treat"

They are so cute together, I LOVE this picture!!!

They BOTH loved the balloon creations that they got at the Halloween Extravaganza! Emma knew EXACTLY what she wanted when she got to the front of the line . . . a PINK SWORD! We got brother a BLUE SWORD and he was equally thrilled!

Look at that PRICELESS grin!

We all dressed up for this party. . . Can you tell what we were?

Well in case you can't - - -

Mommy is a Princess Spider, because everything needs to be a PRINCESS in our house!

Daddy is Dex, the phone book guy

Next year I have BIG plans and hope that I can make it all work out!!

This is HALLOWEEN

We had fun celebrating Halloween ALL DAY LONG! For Dinner we made mini pizzas that were a big hit with the kids. They enjoyed eating all the toppings for the pizzas and didn't really care to make their own pizzas. When they came out of the oven Emma didn't even want any of her "Delicious" pizzas, so she at Mom's that she made and I was lucky enough to get hers, YUMMY!

Here they are "Decorating/Eating" their pizzas!Trick or Treating was a BIG hit with both of the kids. Zachary had a TIGHT grip on his bag the whole time and was very upset once his bag got dumped into the "Sharing" pot. Emma loved saying "Trick or Treat", but would say it before they even knocked on the door, so no one ever heard.Zachary WOULD NOT stop digging through his bag long enough to even look up!Emma pulled this face with EVERY SINGLE piece of candy she pulled out of her bag as if she had NEVER seen candy before!I enjoyed reading a book and passing out candy, while the Trick or Treaters were out and about. After they came home we did go over to a neighbors for a short while for a little gathering, but our kids didn't last long because they were worn out and TIRED!This is ALL the candy dumped into the "SHARING" bowl!

I love teaching my children how sharing is IMPORTANT!

SPIDER Cookies!!!

The week of Halloween we did lots of HALLOWEENIE things. One of the favorites was making SPIDER cookies! I always enjoy making cookies with my kids!!They are always excited to lick the beater!

When I make pancake batter they BEG to lick the beater and just don't understand why it won't be GOOD!
Here's Zachary with his SPIDER cookie
He LOVED eating the spider legs!

Emma did a good job placing her legs on her spider JUST RIGHT!!
She ALSO loves POSING for the camera, as you can tell!

The Spider Cookies were a big hit at our house and will be a fun TRADITION to carry on every year! It's a good change from sugar cookies!

And would this post really be complete without this MESSY MUG?

I think not!!

Pumpkins . . .

As I thought about carving pumpkins with our kids this year I saw many people who let their kids paint their pumpkins and thought, "What a GREAT idea!" I really had good intentions to let them paint their pumpkins, but when it came time to actual do the project I did not have the energy for the MESS that would follow, so my children were allowed to COLOR their pumpkins. They thought it was great and the mess was what I could handle. Maybe next year the paints will come out, MAYBE!!Zachary LOVED to slide the crayons over to him, so that his sister would squeal with disgust because he wasn't sharing!!!Emma was quite the little artist, but was frustrated because the crayons really didn't show up on the pumpkin. As you will see later, she covinced her Dad to help her carve her pumpkin. . . I really don't ENJOY carving pumpkins, but think I should every year just for the fun of it. I have now decided that after 5 years of enduring the whole pumpkin carving scene I will RETIRE my skills and Alan will carve a pumpkin for ME and HIM!!Emma LOVED helping Daddy carve her pumpkin. She picked out the shapes for the face - - - Triangle Eyes, Circle nose, and a BIG HAPPY SMILE!
Alan whipped out the tools left and right to carve his pumpkin this year. Unfortunately I don't think we got a picture of the final result except on his phone. It was an AWESOME SCARY face!! Someone even asked if his pumpkin was Hitler and Alan was proud to agree it was!!! Our cute kids with their PUMPKINS!
I do love Halloween and this pumpkin carving scene is fun to attempt, ONCE A YEAR, but I just don't have the skills for it!
Needless to say, it will continue to be a fun tradition for years to come!!!!
Hey I can't be good at EVERYTHING!!! : )